Russia oil firms face heavy fines for gas flaring

Sat, 06/16/2012 - 09:45 EDT - Yahoo!

Russian oil companies are facing fines of hundreds of millions of dollars or more for polluting the atmosphere with excess amounts of flared gas, the newly appointed resources minister said on Saturday. ...

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil companies are facing fines of hundreds of millions of dollars or more for polluting the atmosphere with excess amounts of flared gas, the newly appointed resources minister said on Saturday. Russia, the world's top energy producer, set a target for oil companies not to flare off more than 5 percent of the associated petroleum gas (APG) they produce as a byproduct of crude extraction by 2012. Sticking to the previous government's policy, Sergei Donskoy told TV channel Russia 24 the threatened fines were in the "tens of billions of roubles" range. ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian oil companies are facing fines of hundreds of millions of dollars or more for polluting the atmosphere with excess amounts of flared gas, the newly appointed resources minister said on Saturday.

As Putin’s government continues to resist European and US sanctions over the Ukraine issue, the value of various Russian exchange-traded funds, most notably the Market Vector Russia ETF Trust (RSX), has been dropping. According to Bloomberg, outflows from investors were more than $12 million from Market Vector Russia, since the July 17 sanction.

Reuters/Hannibal HanschkeBERLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany threatened on Friday to retaliate against the United States if new sanctions on Russia being proposed by the US Senate end up penalizing German firms.

One day after the Senate almost unanimously passed a bill to impose new sanctions on Russia, an unexpected outcry against the US decision emerged from two of America's closest allies, Germany and Austria, who yesterday slammed the new sanctions and accused the U.S. of having ulterior motives in seeking to enforce the energy blockade, which they said is trying to help American natural gas suppliers at the expense of their Russian rivals.

MOSCOW: Russia and China signed a $25 billion deal to boost Chinese lending to Russian firms and a host of other accords deepening economic cooperation on Friday as Moscow's ties with the West fray over the Ukraine crisis. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping hailed their countries' improving relationship after Kremlin talks and a signing ceremony on the eve of a military parade marking the end of World War Two in Europe.

Another set of sanctions and another tumble in Russian shares. This time around, sanctions have impacted major Russian companies with significant ties to the global economy. However, no broad sectoral sanctions were introduced.The following companies are hit:

NEW YORK — As politicians debate the dangers of a massive increase in oil carried by rail in North America, railroads and energy producers are considering the same for natural gas.
Buoyed by the unexpected success of crude by rail, companies are beginning to consider transporting natural gas as remote drilling frontiers emerge beyond the reach of pipelines, executives said.

Rosneft is seeking to borrow up to US$30-billion from China in exchange for possibly doubling oil supplies, making Beijing the largest consumer of Russian oil and further diverting supplies away from Europe.
Four industry sources familiar with the situation told Reuters Rosneft was in talks with China’s state firm CNPC about the borrowing, which would echo a $25 billion deal the two companies clinched last decade.